five institutional innovations to build a "new line of defense" for food safety

Can the promulgation and implementation of the food safety law make up for the existing regulatory loopholes? How to reduce food safety risks? Compared with the original food hygiene law, what are the institutional innovations and breakthroughs?

in view of these issues that are widely concerned by the society, relevant experts have interpreted the five "new lines of defense" established by the food safety law in terms of supervision system and risk monitoring.

Supervision: the whole process is closely linked

From "Tiantou" to "dining table", all aspects of food production and operation in China are heavily guarded: agriculture, quality supervision, industry and commerce, health ...

However, in practice, the problem of segmented supervision system is increasingly apparent: the responsibilities between departments are unclear, and the management is seized when it is beneficial, while the management is neglected when it is not beneficial. At the same time, the internal friction between departments is serious, and it is easy to lose the best regulatory opportunity by passing the buck after the problems appear.

"Sanlu incident" can be described as the concentrated exposure of the drawbacks of this regulatory system: the milk source purchase and transportation links are unsupervised; After consumers complained about product quality problems, there was no information exchange between relevant departments ... All these left room for people to reflect.

Ni Yuefeng, a member of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) who participated in the formulation of the law, bluntly said: "If the current supervision system is not changed, it will be difficult to effectively prevent the recurrence of the Sanlu incident, and it will be difficult to greatly improve the food safety situation."

After many studies, the Food Safety Law has adjusted the current supervision system and clearly stipulated that "the State Council will set up a food safety committee". Li Yuan, director of the Administrative Law Office of the the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) Municipal Law Commission, said that this committee is a high-level deliberation and coordination body, which coordinates and guides the food safety supervision, aiming at strengthening the cooperation among departments and eliminating the supervision gap.

In order to strengthen the whole-process supervision, the Food Safety Law further clarifies the supervision responsibilities of various departments:

—— The health administrative department of the State Council undertakes the comprehensive coordination responsibility of food safety, is responsible for risk assessment, standard formulation and information release of food safety, and organizes the investigation and handling of major food safety accidents.

—— the State Council Quality Supervision, Administration for Industry and Commerce and State Food and Drug Administration respectively supervise and manage food production, food circulation and catering service activities.

in addition, the food safety law also strengthens the supervision responsibility of local governments: local people's governments at or above the county level are responsible for, lead, organize and coordinate the food safety supervision and management in their respective administrative areas, and establish and improve the working mechanism of the whole process of food safety supervision and management.

Li Yuan pointed out that after the adjustment of the supervision system, all departments should shoulder their respective responsibilities and implement their work, so as to truly ensure that food safety supervision is neither overlapping nor disjointed, so as to achieve interlocking and seamless connection, so as to string together a complete chain of food safety supervision.

risk monitoring and evaluation: the safety evaluation was raised from "after the event" to "before"

From the inferior milk powder incident in Fuyang to Sudan Red, Ampullaria gigas, Duobao Fish, and then to the "Sanlu Incident", looking back at the food safety incidents that occurred in recent years, almost all the incidents were first disclosed by consumers or the media, while the regulatory authorities were always slow to take a shot, which led to the consumers often failing to hear the authoritative voice.

"If we want to find out the potential safety hazards in food in time, we must change the traditional supervision mode that only pays attention to' pre-permission, post-sampling and punishment in case of accidents' and strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of risks." In the process of food safety legislation, many members of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) emphasized.

for this reason, it is clearly stated in the food safety law that "the state establishes a food safety risk monitoring system", and relevant departments should formulate and implement a national food safety risk monitoring plan.

Huang Wei, director of the Administrative Law Office of the the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) Law Commission, said that this provision means that relevant departments should advance the food risk supervision barrier and take the initiative to detect food-borne diseases, food pollution and harmful factors in food to prevent harm to human health. This is also an important basis for obtaining food safety risk assessment.

on this basis, the food safety law also provides for the establishment of a food safety risk assessment system, requiring the establishment of a food safety risk assessment expert Committee composed of experts in medicine, agriculture, food and nutrition to assess food safety risks.

Li Yuan pointed out that the establishment of food safety risk monitoring and evaluation system means that the focus of food safety supervision in China is mainly from external surface phenomena to internal food safety factors, which is a big change.

safety standards: formulating a unified national food standard

The "nonstandard" food safety standards in China have always been the weakness of food safety supervision in China.

on the one hand, China's standards are too old and too few, and they are not in line with international standards. China's current food hygiene law was enacted in 1995, which only stipulated 291 indicators of pesticide residues in food, while the International Codex Alimentarius stipulated 2439 standards of pesticide residues.

On the other hand, there are too many food standards in China, including hygiene standards and quality standards. National standards, enterprise standards ... The standards are overlapping and unclear.

From Sudan red to malachite green, from deadly jelly to PVC plastic wrap that may cause cancer ... The outdated and missing standards make the defense line of food safety fall again and again. Therefore, the Food Safety Law clarifies the principle of unified formulation of national food safety standards, and requires the health administrative department of the State Council to integrate the existing quality and safety standards of edible agricultural products, food hygiene standards and food quality standards and publish them as national food safety standards.

Huang Wei said that the establishment of a scientific, unified and authoritative food safety standard system can not only lay a solid foundation for ensuring food safety, but also effectively put an end to the phenomenon that various law enforcement departments go their own way.

Some experts have pointed out that standards are like a "firewall" for food safety. This wall should not only be complete and unified, but also be constantly reinforced, widened and thickened, so as to really play a role in safety protection.

With the development of technology, there are more and more new foods, and it is also an urgent task to upgrade and update food standards. It is reported that the Ministry of Health has listed the formulation and revision of the standards for residues of agricultural and veterinary drugs, toxic and harmful pollutants and food additives in food as priority areas in the near future. This year, we will also complete the revision of the national dairy quality and safety standards.

Food additives: It is forbidden to add

lean meat powder, dichlorvos soaked ham and melamine into milk without authorization ... In recent years, food safety accidents are basically caused by producers illegally adding non-edible substances to beautify food and reduce costs, but food additives have been blamed for this.

At the same time, there are also some problems in the use of food additives, such as poor supervision and prominent abuse, which leads to the "discoloration of additives" in society.

At present, there are more than 1,811 kinds of food additives in China. Wang Zhutian, deputy director of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety of China CDC, said: "Without food additives, the food shelves in supermarkets are basically empty. Food additives are so widely used that it is imperative to strengthen supervision. "

for this reason, the food safety law emphasizes that food additives should be technically necessary and proved safe and reliable through risk assessment before they can be included in the permitted scope of use; Chemical substances other than food additives and other substances that may endanger human health shall not be used in food production.

Huang Wei said that according to this legal provision, it is illegal to add substances that are not listed in the food additives list, even if they are harmless to the human body. This is an annotation for the "Mengniu" Telunsu incident.

The previous disturbance of "benzoyl peroxide as a flour treatment agent" has also aroused social concern. The grain department put forward the improvement of production technology, and flour processing can be done without this treatment agent, requiring it to be removed from the list of food additives. However, food hygiene experts believe that it is against the scientific practice to remove it from the list without proving that it is harmful to human health.

in view of this realistic contradiction, the food safety law emphasizes "technical necessity" on the basis of "safety and reliability". Huang Wei said: "Technical necessity means that the added substances are essential for the production of food, and if not, it may affect the quality of food. With people's emphasis on health, only additives that beautify food can be cancelled. "

Strengthen the responsibility: "Severe punishment" to deal with "chaos"

Knowing that melamine is a chemical raw material, not a food additive, criminals still mix it into milk for profit ―― The painful lesson of "Sanlu incident" sounded an alarm bell, which made people deaf.

there are norms and requirements for the use of food additives, but if producers have no conscience and morality, no amount of norms will be in vain. To this end, in the food safety legislation, many the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) members also clearly stated: "Food producers and operators should not only engage in production and business activities according to law, but also bear social responsibilities."

The Food Safety Law particularly emphasizes the social responsibility of food producers and operators, requiring them to be responsible to the society and the public, ensure food safety, accept social supervision and assume social responsibilities.

Accordingly, the Food Safety Law has also established a series of systems to implement the safety responsibilities of food producers and operators one by one:

-Clearly implement the food production and operation licensing system, and strengthen food safety supervision from the source by improving the access system and raising the market threshold.

-establish a food safety credit file system for food producers and operators, and finally achieve the goal of expelling those enterprises that lack safety credit from the market.

-establish a system of claiming tickets and certificates to ensure that once food safety problems occur, they can be traced to the end.

-establish an unsafe food recall system to prevent unsafe food from continuing to circulate and sell in the market, which becomes a hidden danger of food safety ...

To ensure food safety, on the one hand, we must establish regulations, on the other hand, we must severely punish illegal acts in the field of food safety. Compared with the current relevant laws, the food safety law also significantly increases the punishment for illegal acts, and increases the current maximum fine of 5 times the illegal income to 11 times the value of the goods.

At the same time, the Food Safety Law also stipulates punishment measures for dereliction of duty and dereliction of duty of personnel of regulatory authorities and certification bodies: in case of major food safety accidents and serious social impact, the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel of local governments at or above the county level shall be given disciplinary sanctions such as gross demerit, demotion, dismissal or dismissal; If the regulatory authorities at or above the county level fail to perform their duties or abuse their powers or neglect their duties, causing serious consequences, they shall be dismissed or expelled, and the main responsible person shall take the blame and resign.